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Thursday, March 28, 2019

The other day I was in an elevator. A man who looked to be
in his thirties got on, while talking on the phone. Entering behind him was a
couple with a baby boy about a year old in their arms.

The guy on the phone says, “I have to hang up now, I just
got into an elevator”.

The father turns to him and says in a nasty tone, “Did you
really have to endanger all of us just to finish your call?”

He snaps back, “I hung up before the doors closed, its’ fine”.

The father responds, “I don’t know what physics degree you
have but it really doesn’t work like that!”

End conversation.

I was so taken back about how quickly this whole scene needlessly
escalated. The man had clearly hung up the phone, so all the father had to do
was mention politely how the radiation can still be impacted even with the
doors open. Instead, he took an aggressive tone from the start, and was
responded too in kind.

Obviously, one of the most important qualities a leader
needs to posses is the ability to be a calming voice. But I think it goes
deeper than that. At work, we sometimes encounter people who are usually
pleasant and calm talking in an aggressive, or belligerent manner. Rather than
attack them back, or chide them for their behavior, a leader needs to think to
themselves, “Why is this person acting like this?” Perhaps they are under some
intense pressure at work due to some deadlines. Maybe it’s something in their
personal lives which is causing them to lash out. Next time you see an employee
acting out, take them aside and reflect their behavior back to them in as
polite a way possible. Then ask, “Is everything ok, this really isn’t like
you.” Nine out ten times you will find there is something going on in their
lives which is bothering them. (The other time, is they likely skipped lunch
and are just cranky!)

To me, one of the most important character traits of
leadership is the amount of compassion we show others. Compassion means
thinking about the other person, what is ailing them, and how we can help. Most
people in this world are good kind-hearted people. So, when they lash out at
others there’s a good chance there’s a perfectly good explanation for it. Our
ability to help find this explanation and deal with it is rooted in our
humility which is of course another quintessential hallmark of leadership. Sometimes
we can get so caught up in the offense especially if their tirade is aimed at
us, we neglect to think about the root cause.

That elevator I was in, happened to be in a hospital. One
look at the child and it was clear he was a patient, which was likely causing
an enormous amount of stress on the parents. It doesn’t excuse the father being
a little nasty but it sure can explain it. All the guy had to do was swallow his
pride, look at these parents and say, “Sorry, I didn’t realize there is a
problem to talk on the phone when the doors were still open” And if he was
being super polite, “I hope your child gets better soon”.

Monday, March 25, 2019

Years ago, I complied with my wife’s request to have my
hearing checked. She told me time and again that she felt that I did not
consistently hear her. I was surprised and somewhat reluctant, but decided to
go to an ENT. Everything checked out and the doctor told me my hearing was
fine. As you may have guessed, I realized it wasn’t my hearing that was
defective – it was my listening. That event accelerated my interest in making
listening a hallmark for me, not only as a coach, but in all aspects of my life.
As I focused more on listening, I encouraged my clients to become better
listeners and noted these positive changes:

· - Increased self confidence

· - Decreased frustration with subordinate
misunderstandings

· - Increased respect with subordinates as well as
their direct reports

As an executive coach for the past 15 years, I have observed
how a change in a leader’s leadership style can rapidly transform a company
culture. Like a cascading waterfall, direct reports quickly emulate the
leader’s changes, and cultural transformation follows organically. Becoming a
highly skilled listener is one of the most important tools in achieving
remarkable transformation. A critical part of becoming a better listener is
understanding and then overcoming these seven habits.

·A conscious or subconscious lack of
respect of others.The
act of fully listening to another person is an act of respect. When we do not truly
listen, we are disrespecting the person talking. Our disrespect may not even be
intentional, but it is disrespect never the less. Just recognizing this fact
may inspire you to be in the present and truly listen.

Action
Tip:
Prior to meeting with a person or persons, think about what is your
purpose/motivation for listening. I could be to show respect, to learn, to
inspire or to…

·The natural desire to talk.The fact is, for just about
everyone, it is more natural to talk than to listen. We want to tell others
what we think, what we did, and what we know. Therefore, be honest with
yourself how true this is for you, and give yourself a break in understanding
that focused and active listening requires discipline.

Action Tip: For the
next month, consider putting your curiosity into overdrive! Ask insightful
questions and observe the effect this has on you.

·Judging others.Assessing one’s thoughts and
actions is a critical part of leading people and helping them achieve the
desired result. Judgment, as in judging another person’s value, beliefs,
intelligence, personality, or background, however inhibits listening. When
assessment turns into judgment, amongst other implications, it becomes so much
harder to really hear and to gain any benefit from what they are saying.

Action
Tip:
Ask yourself: What could motivate me to
reduce or eliminate the temptation to judge others while listening to them?

·Preconceptions and biases.One source of judgment is
preconceived ideas about a person. This bias stems from something you believe,
such as, “Every time I talk with him, he always has the same point of view.” “I
just know he is not very smart, so it is so hard to listen to him. What will I
get out of it?” As amazing as it might seem, you will learn something new when
you leave your bias behind and sprinkle in some thoughtful questions with a
dose of curiosity.

Action
Tip:
Consider: What will I gain if I abandon
my bias when listening? Be more aware of preconceptions that impede your
ability to listen.

·Ego.We
all have a need to appear to be smart. Maybe even to “be the smartest one in
the room.” My observation is the less we worry about appearing smart and the
more we listen and ask great questions, the smarter we actually appear to be!
And, others develop an even greater respect for us. Another observation is
leaders known for their big egos are normally those who have the deepest doubts
about themselves. If you are a great listener, it is hard also to be known as
the person with the big ego.

Action
Tip: Be aware when you are trying to demonstrate your
intelligence. Try asking questions to learn more about what others know. Prepare
to be surprised by the value of others’ thoughts.

·Multitasking. In my Skills That Inspire Incredible Results (STIIR) program, this habit
always garners a strong response. “I have so much to do I have to multitask” can be heard spoken from the audience. Our
ability to think comes from our prefrontal cortex lobe where information
processes serially – where each new piece of information processes individually. Our brains cannot take in
multiple bits of information simultaneously.
Most of us can process information very rapidly, but not simultaneously. Simply
put, we are most effective when put all of our focus on one thing at a time.

Action
Tip:
As difficult as this might seem, try for one week to turn from the computer or
whatever might distract you from listening and give your undivided attention
and listening to the person who is talking to you. Notice how much it benefits
you and the other person.

·Shutting people off. The
habit of disagreeing with a person and concluding that you will not learn
anything useful from that person is common. We concentrate on the disagreement rather than the kernel of
truth or the insight the other person may have to offer. When you shut people
off, you may miss critical information or knowledge.

Action
Tip: When you find yourself shutting another person off, instead
become curious and listen for the kernel of truth or insight that the person
may have for you.

I have observed that high-performing leaders who make a
strong commitment to overcome these habits gain benefits far beyond the effort
required. Try it; you will be amazed by the outcome.

Tuesday, March 19, 2019

When we think about
leadership and leadership development we rarely think about hiring and
recruitment.Yet one of the most
important contributions of a great leader is creating, and sustaining, the organisation
for success both now and the future.Hiring talent, for now and the future, is fundamental to this ambition.Yet so often, hiring is seen as a painful
activity which takes time away from more important matters.Yet what can be more important than ensuring
the organisation has the right people?

Hiring well is, in my
opinion, both a science and an art.The
science part is more easily learned, albeit not frequently integral to
leadership development and training.It
is concerned with understanding, and executing well, the elements of the hiring
process.Some aspects can be
successfully delegated, including elements such as the sourcing of candidates,
documenting, initial screening, referencing.However, leaders need to play a role in the messaging and selection elements
of hiring.Leaders play a critical role
shaping the message communicated to potential hires which must be congruent
with the leader’s vision for the organisation, or department, and consistent
with the experience of current employees.Playing a part in the selection of the candidate requires leaders to be
skilled in interviewing and judgement. Learning how to interview effectively to
remove irrelevant bias and get to the truth of the candidate is a skill and it
can be learned by someone committed to mastering it.Making the right judgment is more of an
art.It can be honed through experience
and great leaders need to invest time and effort in developing, testing and
improving their judgement on a range of factors including hiring decisions.

Perhaps because there
is a great deal of system and routine involved in hiring, or perhaps because
leaders do not consider this a skill that will further their personal success,
many leaders do not invest time and attention in becoming great
recruiters.I believe that they are
missing a trick here which results in either missing out on some talent, or
perhaps even worse, hiring less than brilliant people into their teams and
organisations.

As a contribution to
energising leaders to repositioning hiring excellence as one of their key
leadership competencies, here are a few thoughts:

· - It takes courage and confidence to make a good hire. To refuse to settle in terms of quality and
fit, no matter how much pressure there is to fill the spot to get the work
done. To be willing to take on someone
who might, one day, overtake you. To
take a well mitigated risk on hiring someone outside the mold, and more
importantly to nurture, challenge and mentor them to be a success.

· - It takes vision to know what people, attitude, skills, behaviours,
competencies will be needed in the future and to attract these people into the
organisation and retain them thereafter.

· - It takes integrity to be honest with a potential hire about what is great
about the organisation today and what needs to be worked on so that candidates
can make an informed choice about joining the organisation and once in it will
be able to affirm their decision and not feel that they were sold something
that is not quite true.

- It takes strong critical thinking to be able to
evaluate the information presented to you by a candidate and to pull out the
important elements and make a determination about suitability for the immediate
role, fit with the organisation and future potential.

· - It requires decisive action to make a timely hiring
decision and to act quickly so as to secure top talent who have many other
options that they can pursue and will be attracted not just by the role and the
leadership but also by their hiring experience.

· - It takes self-development orientation to accept that some attention will
need to be given and time invested in perfecting the science and art of hiring.

· - It takes strong communication and the ability
to inspire others to attract top talent to your organisation in what is
increasingly a tough market for talent, particularly if you are up against
higher profile organisations, or higher payers.

· - It takes flexibility to be able to reshape roles and challenges to better
meet the aspirations and talents of a potential hire.

· - It requires managerial competence and empowerment to allow your leaders to
hire without unnecessary interference and to trust in their judgement, coaching
and not controlling to support great decisions.

· -It takes good judgement to get it right when hiring.

In summary, great
hiring requires all the attributes of great leadership and allows leaders to
leave a legacy which is greater than themselves.

Lisette Howlett is author of The
Right Hire:Attract And Retain The Best
People, a licensed Sandler Trainer located in London Central, and she has
fifteen years of global change leadership and business development experience. Howlett
is called upon by business owners of small and medium-sized companies for
strategy and business development. Her experience includes financial services,
technology, pharma/biotech, manufacturing, IT, media, recruitment and
professional services.

Tuesday, March 12, 2019

In
1998 I graduated from business school feeling I knew all there was to know
about leadership. I began work as a management consultant and much of what I’d
learnt was very quickly thrown out of the window. The basics of behaviour tell
us far more than the latest fad. I became obsessed with observing like a
detective, working out what, why and how. In fact, I was so fascinated that I soon
returned to university to complete an MSc in Business Psychology.

Since
then I have profiled and coached leaders from across the world. I have lived
their journeys with them and while I’ve not bourn the scars or failure (nor
shared in the rewards of success!) in their entirety, I have assessed and predicted
who would fail, who would succeed. I’ve worked hand in hand with leaders who
have struggled and those who have flourished.

With
this experience in tow I returned to those original learnings to re-assess
their relevance. What I’ve found is that it really isn’t the latest cutting-edge
idea that’s most relevant, rather the foundations taught as long ago as philosophers
such as Lao Tzu in 600BC that have stood the test of time.

“A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.”

Whilst
we may now add in ‘he or she’ into this quote today, people are people and as
the human brain has evolved very little (if at all) over the centuries the
fundamentals of good leadership have also remained largely unchanged. What
threatened people then, will threaten today, what motivated then, will motivate
today. What is however changing is the rate of change itself and the volume of
data leaders and followers have to deal with. As a result, those critical
aspects of good leadership become even more important. They act as an anchor
from which to weather the storm of a turbulent world and the foundation from
which to build on new knowledge.

Hence,
I believe the fundamentals of good leadership are as true today as they ever
were, but with a twist:

1.Resilience. Leaders have always needed
be resilient but what that means is changing. A generation ago resilience meant
continuing no matter what: sleeping under the desk, not sleeping at all, skipping
vacations, taking calls from a hospital bed. There’s still a badge of honour
associated with carrying on in spite of pressure but this sort of behaviour was
never sustainable (Arianna Huffington openly talks about this) and is arguably
becoming even less so. As a leader of
tomorrow there is a need for constant flex to your own physical and emotional needs,
being hyper aware, understanding what energises and what drains, carefully managing
of life and duties and giving permission for others to warn you when you become
blindsided by stress creeping up on you.

2.Curiosity
for Agility.
We have an increasing understanding of how ‘plastic’ our brain is, even into
later age. Until recently we believed many aspects of our personality were
fixed and were unconsciously encouraged to approached life accordingly. However,
as a leader of tomorrow, understanding
this plasticity means that it is never too late to change or grow, to seek out
opportunities, to learn, to flex to a new way of working and to adapt to the
changing world around you. Remaining open and curious allows you to embrace
unpredictable situations rather than being thrown off track by them.

3.Building
High Performing Teams.
All too often top teams are made up of high performing individuals working in
silos which is then reflected down through the organisation. This approach massively
limits the potential of the whole organisation, restricting the ability to flex
and quickly respond to the demands of the fast-moving world. As a leader of tomorrow, it will become ever
more critical to understand how to build and enable truly high performing teams
that challenge ‘bricks and mortar’ organisation structures and ways of working.
You will need this to allow for optimal agility and to fully leverage the
collective capability of employees throughout the organisation.

4.Communicating Vision. The priority of this point is
increasing exponentially with the ambiguity of the world around us. As humans we
become emotionally and intellectually stifled in times of uncertainty. This
results in employees feeling threatened and disengaged. As a leader of tomorrow, it will therefore be imperative to articulate
the vision with clarity and passion, really connecting with the audience. This
will allow people to feel a sense of unity, purpose and comfort that enables
them to engage and perform at their optimum. As a leader it allows you to safely
provide freedom to employees on how they work, empowering people to achieve in
a way that is best suited to their own strengths, approach and personality.

The
enabler of all of these is not only an increasing knowledge of behaviour and
how best to leverage it, but also the presence of Artificial Intelligence (AI)
working alongside that understanding. Many see AI as a threat but it’s also an
amazing opportunity. A McKinsey article published in April 2018, for example says
that AI ‘creates space and time to think by filtering the signal from the noise’.
As a leader, letting algorithms work on the increasing volumes of data that you
are expected to deal with, the aspects which are creating the constant flux and
overload will mean that AI can ‘report back only what you need to know and when
you need to know it.’ If used effectively both as a leader and employee, it
could free up the brain from a huge amount of unnecessary processing and
decision making. This will allow focus on the behavioural aspects for leaders
who embrace AI to flourish in the landscape of tomorrow.

So,
to be a great leader of tomorrow, don’t look to the latest fad or claim, return
to the basics as your foundations to remaining agile, then leverage what the
future world is offering.

Fiona Murden is a Chartered Psychologist,
Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society, best-selling author and
stimulating public speaker who has spent the past eighteen years working with
leaders of multi-national companies. She is also founder and MD of Aroka Ltd
which she has run globally for the past 11 years.Aroka profiles senior leaders in the UK, USA,
Europe and Asia Pacific to assess their fit, strengths and the risks in
relation to the role that they are being hired for. Her speaking commitments
take her into boardrooms as diverse as the Institute of Directors, the Cabinet
Office, the Royal College of Surgeons, Lloyd’s of London, The City Women’s
Network and Nomura.

Fiona’s
book, Defining
You was published worldwide in 2018. Defining You opens a window
into the process of psychological profiling in business and presents a clear
path to improving your effectiveness with immediate actions and tangible
tips.

Wednesday, March 6, 2019

I'm going through and cleaning up some old posts and found this one from 2007. I still find this one to be very true 12 years later.A Genie (actually an HR Vice-president at a former company) once asked me, “Dan, if you could make a wish and only do one thing for leadership development, what would it be?”You see, this was a company that was going through some tough belt-tightening, and we spent a lot of time making hard choices as to what to keep and what to cut. My initial reaction was I a thought it was sucker’s choice question. That is, of course you can’t develop leaders by doing just one thing, leadership development is a system, involving many interdependent variables. But I knew what she was getting at – she was trying to get me to prioritize, or perhaps to test my ability to think strategically. I thought about it for just a few seconds, and then, without thinking of the political consequences, blurted out, “get a new CEO?” Definitely the wrong answer, not what she was looking for at all. Very career limiting.But you know, I still stand behind the answer. My experience has been that it always does seem to link back to the top banana’s belief and commitment to developing leaders. I once heard a CEO say, “You know, I don’t have time to teach people, and at this level, I shouldn't have to!” Well, at least he admitted it – better than phony lip service with all talk and no action. On the other hand, I worked with an executive named who was proud to say he spent 75% of histime developing leaders. I sat though a few talent review meetings with him, and he was dead serious about it. It was painful to witness his wrath when a business unit president showed up unprepared, or was not doing enough to weed out poor performers and develop high potentials. (these butt-kicking’s were all part of his 75%). Why does it matter so much? When a senior leader understands the strategic value of leadership development and the ROI, all else falls into place. There’s a cascading effect from role modeling, setting expectations, inspection, and ultimately, improved business performance. As a practitioner, you’re not spending time deciding what to cut or figuring out how to sell your new program, you’re hanging on to a tiger’s tail and trying to keep up. The expectations are sky high, and you better deliver, but I’ll take that deal any chance I can.

Tuesday, March 5, 2019

Within each organization
exists an ecosystem that extends beyond its boundaries into the external
environment. Some workplaces are more complex than others and without a
strategy to shape their cultures the conditions within can be continuously
affected by interacting internal and external dynamics. In any organization, leaders
have a choice, they can concentrate on urgent short-term goals, or they can
equip themselves with the relationship sensing and building skills they need to
balance priority tensions.

Because we coexist in
unpredictable and ambiguous local and global environments, longevity has been a
more pronounced business imperative. One way to achieve it is to facilitate
quality relationships that can sustainably and meaningfully connect team
members and networks. At a macro level, leaders should also master the skills they
need to balance their strategic priorities with the dynamism of their
organizational ecosystem. By doing this, they can incrementally transform into an
adaptive, responsive establishment.

When leaders aim for authentic
balance, they must first become better at keeping their fingers on the pulse of
the quality of team and network relationships while simultaneously strengthening
them as they achieve corporate goals. Building balanced relationships through
trust is at the heart of the IFB Model of leadership. So, the question is, how
can leaders lead by using IFB principles?

1.Align with
the core value of trust:

According
to the 2018 Edelman Trust Barometer “In a time marked by turbulence at home and
abroad, trust in institutions in the United States crashed, posting the
steepest, most dramatic general population decline the Trust Barometer has ever
measured.”With an outcome of this proportion,
trust is an increasingly important brand essential. Therefore, once you assess your
trust levels, if required you can establish a robust corrective plan because
when low trust persists, internal and external stakeholders will undoubtedly
detect it.

Trust building
requires mastery of integrity, emotional intelligence, and your “we”
disposition. Therefore, any organizational core values and policies that are
counterproductive to these three trust qualities—like reward systems that
stimulate competitive behaviours—should be challenged and actively addressed by
IFB decision makers.

Your
relationship strengthening solutions should ensure the core values of your
organization are compatible with trust. This includes your formal core values
and the ones that exist informally, being transmitted through peer pressure, action,
or inaction.

2.Strengthen
Your Interconnective Infrastructure:

Strengthening
your interconnective infrastructure involves building relationships with members
of your team, your internal network of teams, informal relationship clusters,
and relationships with people in your external networks. As a leaders, your vision
of how you relate should include clarification of the quality of the relationship
between your organization and the community it serves.

Each team
or network is defined by the quality of its relationships as well as the rules
of engagement imposed by policies, procedures, standards, and other less formal
cultural norms. When new members join
your team, normative behaviours can shift if there is no accountability to
sustainable cultural design. Therefore, as you lead, it’s important to remain
attuned to your vision of your culture and interconnective infrastructure so you
can take proactive, meaningful steps toward trust-based transformation.

It is
important to note that low quality relationships can yield high performing
results. In cases like this, performance is driven by tight controls, expressed
or unspoken threats, and numerous colleagues in perpetual survival mode.
Imagine the capacities leaders can unlock when trust, robust talent development
strategies, satisfactory engagement levels, and creativity are prevailing
themes.

There are
a variety of intricately linked flows within ecosystems, each with their unique
intrinsic and extrinsic drivers—like fear, ambition, purposefulness or
engagement.When employees are
intrinsically motivated and mutual trust exists between leaders and their team
members, policies may be less necessary for healthy flow. In compliance
cultures, by their very nature policies are controls designed to limit error
making and standardize quality. These tools can have an unobserved outcome of limiting
learning opportunities and growth. While establishing policies can create a
sense of safety, a well-trained, engaged, and proactive team with increasing
capacities can feel even safer.

4.Balance
Continuously:

When
transforming your organization into one that operates on the principle of
change as a constant, integral part of doing business, balancing activities must
be ongoing. This means leaders should intentionally implement incremental
transformative actions as well as larger change initiatives—both sequentially
and simultaneously. At times decision-makers may consider the projected outcomes
of change as ambiguous, and this is okay. Trial and error can work if you have
the time, otherwise, you may have to take a calculated risk.

In
organizations where leaders are proficient at balancing multiple tensions, they
take time to identify priority, short and long-term pressures so they can
develop and implement concrete solutions before these tensions become high
risks. Mastering balancing skills requires consideration of strategic and
cultural tensions so multiple sub-competencies are necessary, like: 1) Building
your capacity to attune to and diagnose complex ecosystems; 2) Identifying tensions
and the potential consequences and opportunities within them; and 3) Taking
measured steps to balance priority tensions while implementing strategic initiatives.

Interconnectivity,
Flow, and Balanceare three dynamics that occur naturally
within active organizations. The IFBSM Model can be used by leaders to
strengthen relationship dynamics and by extension, improve performance,
creativity and organizational growth. It does this by providing leaders with a powerful
lens they can use to perceive new or vexing problems with new eyes. These
insights facilitate evolving perspectives which can enrich your decisions and lay
the foundation for sustainable success.

About the Author:

Yvette Bethelis CEO
of Organizational Soul, an IFB Consulting and Leadership Development company.
She is a Consultant, Trainer, Speaker, Coach, Author, and Simulation Producer. She created the proprietary IFB process for transforming
organizations from the inside out. She is also a Preferred Partner at Six Seconds,
the largest emotional intelligence network in the world. For more
information you can contact Yvette at www.ifbcentral.com.